Chapter 377 - 180: Industrial Succession (Middle)

Chapter 377: Chapter 180: Industrial Succession (Middle)

August 10th.

A food security summit was being held in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, on the scorching Qiongzhou Island, growers from all over were also buzzing with discussion.

However, the topic of discussion among the Qiongzhou Island growers wasn’t some food security summit, but Hailufeng Company.

Qiongdong Region.

The Hailufeng Company Qiongzhou Branch had established a high-level regional office here, specifically to manage the company’s business in the area.

These so-called "regional offices" were secondary dispatched agencies set up by the regional branch to strengthen local management. Currently, the Qiongzhou Branch had established a total of six such regional offices on Qiongzhou Island.

And the Qiongdong office was one of them.

At that moment, in Huishan Town, Qiongdong.

At a table in an open-air food stall, a middle-aged man missing a finger on his left hand poured a cup of rice wine for the dark, heavyset man across from him. "Fatso, I heard you ripped out your family’s betel nut trees?"

"And not rip them out? Keep ’em for New Year’s? Last year the purchase price was less than eight yuan. After a whole year of work, I only made a few thousand. If you count the labor my family put in, we lost our asses," Fatso said, exasperated.

"Sigh! Times are tough!" Nine-finger sighed softly, filled his own cup with rice wine, and took a small sip.

The development of the Qiongzhou betel nut industry had been full of ups and downs in recent years, plagued by constant turmoil.

At the end of ’24, the farm-gate purchase price for green betel nuts was still 50 to 60 yuan per kilogram. By the end of ’25, however, it had plummeted to 16 yuan per kilogram.

As for this year, anyone with eyes could see that the betel nut industry would continue to struggle. The reasons were that more than a dozen regions on the mainland had banned the sale of betel nuts, and after the borders were sealed, products exported to the mainland were subject to tariffs. At the same time, many of the betel nut orchards planted a few years ago when the market was booming were now entering their peak production phase.

The accumulation of these unfavorable factors led to the collapse of the betel nut purchase price.

"Fatso, what are you planning to grow now? Rubber? Pepper? Or mangoes?"

Fatso shook his head. "I’m planning to grow durian."

"Durian? You’re not thinking of signing a contract with that Hailufeng Company, are you?" Nine-finger put down his wine cup, a trace of astonishment on his face.

"Why not?"

Nine-finger picked up a piece of typhoon shelter crab. "I heard their management of contracted farmers is extremely strict. They don’t allow farmers to secretly sell durians to other buyers; you can only sell to their company. Those terms are too harsh. Who would want to be exploited by them?"

"Heh, don’t believe every rumor you hear. I have a cousin who works for them. Hailufeng Company’s durian varieties and technology are different from before. Their purchase price is strictly stipulated in the contract at 60% of the retail price," Fatso said, eating a plump oyster.

"Sixty percent? That high?" Nine-finger put down his chopsticks and pressed, "Is your information accurate?"

"Why would I lie to you?"

Nine-finger was hesitant. "Don’t durians take four or five years to bear fruit? My betel nut trees are at their peak production right now. I’d feel bad replanting them now."

But Fatso just smiled and shook his head. "It doesn’t take four or five years. If you plant this year, you can harvest the first batch of fruit the year after next."

"Really? Make sure you haven’t been tricked," Nine-finger said, astonished.

"I went to inspect Hailufeng Company Headquarters last month. They’ve planted over fifty thousand mu of durian in Eastern Guangdong. They’ll start bearing fruit at the end of this year and will have their first harvest next year."

"What if they’re just tricking you?"

"Stop being so pessimistic. Why would they trick me? Are they going to joke around with tens of thousands of mu of durian? They’ve also laid out plans for nearly eighty thousand mu of durian here in Qiongzhou and have already planted the saplings recently."

Unlike Hailufeng Company’s durian cultivation in Eastern Guangdong, the durians planted in Qiongzhou this time used a genetically modified kapok tree as rootstock, which did not require grafting and could be planted directly.

This was because Jiang Miao had improved the technology again in June of this year. The new version of the genetically modified kapok tree no longer died after four or five years. Instead, if it wasn’t given an infusion of a specific chemical agent, the genetically modified kapok tree would not grow, thereby entering a dormant state.

The reason for this improvement was, on one hand, to better control the durian growers, and on the other, to adjust the growth cycle.

A dormant genetically modified kapok tree didn’t truly stop growing; instead, it would concentrate nutrients in the tubers of its root system, somewhat similar to Immortal Soybeans. Moreover, these tubers could also be used as material for cultivating new saplings.

By injecting the special chemical agent, the gene sequence connecting the genetically modified kapok tree and the durian branch could be activated, allowing the durian to begin flowering in the second month and the fruit to mature in the seventh.

This method would allow durians to bear fruit year-round.

As long as the durians in a given area were properly zoned, the chemical agent could be used to precisely control the timing of their flowering and fruiting.

The first batch of the third-generation genetically modified kapok trees, a total of 10,000, had already arrived over in Yuecheng, Qiongzhou, and have been planted for over a month now.

Next, the Hailufeng Company Headquarters would produce 100,000 to 300,000 genetically modified kapok tree saplings every month, all of which would be sent to the Qiongzhou Branch.

These genetically modified kapok trees only needed about half a year to grow to their maximum height of around 4.2 to 4.5 meters.

Typically, after about three months of growth, old durian branches could be grafted onto them. The two would then grow together. However, the grafting point wouldn’t be on the main trunk, but on the lateral branches on all four sides. This design was to ensure the canopy of the genetically modified kapok tree’s main trunk could occupy the core position for photosynthesis, thereby increasing its nutrient accumulation.